Puyo Puyo Champions is popping onto consoles and PC in May

The block-dropping puzzle game Puyo Puyo is coming to the West once more next month, As Puyo Puyo Champions (known as Puyo Puyo eSports when it came out in Asia last year) pops onto PS4, Xbox One, Switch and PC on 7th May. What’s even better news is that it’ll cost just £7.99.

You’d be forgiven for not having heard of Puyo Puyo before, but make no mistake, this series has been around for almost as long as Tetris and in an alternate universe would be the more iconic block-dropping puzzler. It started in 1991 with an arcade release, but despite numerous sequels, themed spin-offs like Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine and Kirby’s Avalance, and appearing as minigames in Sonic Mania or Hatsune Miku, it’s largely had an audience in Japan. A lot more Western awareness of Puyo Puyo might, ironically, have come from its crossover collaboration Puyo Puyo Tetris, which came to the West on Switch and PS4 in early 2017.

Puyo Puyo Champions is geared toward online competitive multiplayer, being based on the Puyo Puyo 2 and Puyo Puyo Fever ruleset – this includes the Fever Mode to definitively defeat your opponents. There’s also an eight-player Tournament Mode for local multiplayer, an improved replay system, 24 of the overly chirpy Puyo Puyo characters, and you can play with Japanese audio.

Admittedly, it’s not the most outlandish package – which explains the price – but ought to be good for those wanting to explore Puyo Puyo, but unwilling to shell out for Puyo Puyo Tetris. Obviously the thing I’m most disappointed about is that it’s not a 99 player battle royale.

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